1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data processing apparatus and a storage medium containing therein a program for controlling the data processing apparatus. More particularly, the invention relates to a data processing apparatus and a storage medium containing a program for controlling the data processing apparatus, which are applied to a small size electronic device such as an electronic notebook or a portable information terminal and adapted to modify a spreadsheet displayed on a display screen by re-arranging columns or rows in the spreadsheet and re-display the modified spreadsheet on the display screen.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Data processing apparatuses and data processing programs are conventionally known which are adapted to display and process data in a spreadsheet form in small size electronic devices such as electronic notebooks and portable information terminals and in application software for use in personal computers. The data processing apparatuses and programs have a spreadsheet creation function for creating a spreadsheet to record and display character string data in a tabular form and a spreadsheet computation function for computing the character string data recorded in the spreadsheet.
The spreadsheet used in the data processing apparatuses has a plurality of rectangular cells consecutively arranged in a matrix form. Data such as character string data to be recorded are displayed in the respective cells in the spreadsheet. A vertical alignment of plural cells is referred to as "column", while a horizontal alignment of plural cells is referred to as "row".
Most of the data processing apparatuses for use in the small size electronic devices stores therein a spreadsheet having a plurality of rectangular cells preliminarily arranged in a matrix form. The cells in the spreadsheet are separated from each other, for example, by frames defined by grid lines. This makes it easy to visually check the sizes of the respective cells. A user of such a data processing apparatus inputs data such as numeric data, formulas and character data to display the data in cells of the spreadsheet. The user can perform deleting, copying and pasting operations on a row or column basis to edit the data displayed in a spreadsheet form.
A data processing technique for the conventional small size electronic device has been proposed which is adapted to divide a spreadsheet into a plurality of spreadsheet portions so that any desired spreadsheet portions can selectively be displayed within a display area of a display screen if the spreadsheet is larger than the display area of the display screen.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 9(1997)-44328 discloses a data processing technique for modifying a spreadsheet by temporarily deleting a column or row in the spreadsheet and recovering the deleted column or row to ensure easy viewing of any desired spreadsheet portions.
More specifically, data to be stored in a spreadsheet data section are displayed in a spreadsheet form on a display section of an electronic device. When deletion of a column or row of the spreadsheet is designated by operating a coordinates inputting section, the spreadsheet is modified by temporarily deleting the column or row and bringing columns or rows adjacent to the deleted column or row in an adjoining relation, and the modified spreadsheet is displayed. At the same time, an identifier is displayed in a position where the deleted column or row has been present. Whether or not the identifier is to be displayed is determined by a user.
Further, when a portion of the coordinates inputting section corresponding to the position of the identifier is touched, the deleted column or row is recovered so as to be displayed in the original position. Where a plurality of columns have been deleted, any of the deleted columns can be recovered by selectively designating the deleted columns. The selective designation of the columns may be achieved by touching portions of the coordinates inputting section corresponding to the positions of identifiers displayed on a menu screen.
In general, the spreadsheet is created regardless of the limited size of the display area of a display screen of a small size electronic device or a personal computer which includes the data processing apparatus. If the created spreadsheet is larger than the display area of the display screen of the electronic device so that a portion of the spreadsheet desired to be viewed is not present within the display area, troublesome operations are required for viewing the desired spreadsheet portion. More specifically, scrolling of the desired spreadsheet portion into the display area, division of the spreadsheet and deletion of an unnecessary portion of the spreadsheet are required.
Particularly where data desired to be compared with each other are located in remote cells in the spreadsheet consisting of multiple rows and columns, the cells to be viewed should respectively be moved into the display area of the display screen so that the comparison of the data in the cells is difficult.
In accordance with the art disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 9(1997)-44328, rows or columns are temporarily deleted with the positions thereof marked with identifiers to display the data desired to be compared with each other in an adjoining relation for easy comparison of data in remote cells in a spreadsheet consisting of multiple rows and columns. As required, the temporarily deleted rows or columns can thereafter be recovered to be displayed as they were. However, this operation requires not only a display buffer for storing therein the spreadsheet data to be displayed but also a temporary buffer for storing therein data in the deleted rows or columns for data read-in and read-out, thereby requiring a greater memory capacity and a greater data processing time before re-display of the data. Further, the data processing apparatus is not designed to change a row height or a column width when the deleted rows or columns are recovered to be displayed, thereby failing to ensure easy viewing of the data in the spreadsheet.